As protests about police brutality and racism have broken out across the country and industries are reckoning with their relationship with the Black community as both consumers and employers, Black writers are speaking out and asking: could the New York Times’ Best Seller list ever be entirely made up of Black authors? Amistad Publishing, an imprint of HarperCollins, is trying to make this a reality on all bestseller lists.
Using the hashtag #BlackoutBestsellerList, they're aiming to get Black authors to the top of bestseller lists by encouraging readers to purchase two books by June 20.
To demonstrate our power and clout in the publishing industry, Saturday June 13 – Saturday June 20, we encourage you to purchase any two books by Black writers. Our goal is to Blackout bestseller lists with Black voices. #BlackoutBestsellerlist#Blackpublishingpower✊🏾✊🏿✊🏽 pic.twitter.com/xHfmCeVwwU
— Amistad Books (@AmistadBooks) June 14, 2020
Prominent Black authors such as Angie Smith, Oprah Winfrey, and Roxane Gay posted in support of this campaign.
“Buying books by black authors does matter in encouraging publishers to publish more books by black authors,” Gay explained on her Twitter page.
The #BlackoutBestsellerList challenge comes after last week’s New York Times Best Seller list was almost exclusively filled with books about race. The campaign aims to bring more Black voices into writing and publishing, which have traditionally been overwhelmingly white.
Here are some of our favorite books by Black authors.